Let me explain. I’m from Poland, I did not live in Warsaw and never spent time in the city, but I went to schools there. Every region of our country hates Warsaw and its citizens because… I do not actually know why. When asking friends, they usually just say that ‘people from the capital are the worst because they are arrogant etc.’. So a question came to mind: How common is it for your country to hate people from its capital? I know from people I spoke to that Germans or British have very low opinion of their capitals, so I am wondering if it is present throughout whole of Europe.
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I’m from London. People hate us cause apparently we’re rude, have loads of money, the government give us everything and we’re just over crowded idiots. I don’t really care to be honest. Most have never lived here, visited or even done anything to do with London but that’s how it is.
At least if I slate a place, I can say it’s cause I’ve visited. Don’t like Birmingham but I love Manchester. Apples and oranges.
Well, you already covered Germany and yes, everybody hates Berlin. Even those living there, I guess.
But Germany being a federal country, Berlin isn’t as important as London is to the UK or Paris is to France.
Quite common in Romania, as it is quite a centralized country and until recently 90% of well paid jobs were only in the capital, Bucharest. The attitude of some of the inhabitants of the city doesn’t really help, arrogance towards people with different accents is common and they are often ridiculed and scammed by taxi drivers for example.
This happens in other major cities like Cluj and Timisoara too, they even have a name for the newly-arrived people, vinituri, can be translated as “arrivals”. Ironically very often the most radical anti-vinituri people are last year’s “vinituri”.
From the U.K. –
London is sometimes described as a “black star” as it has a lot of wealth and opportunity but it also arguably sucks talent from the rest of the country. London also feels like it gets more investment and thus has better infrastructure than many other cities in the country. So it does get a lot of resentment and hate – from left behind communities feeling like they’re neglected while London gets all the attention, crime issues, unfriendly people, overcrowding, high costs of living, heavy air pollution. Racists also like to hate on London because it’s very racially diverse.
Long story short, yes London probably gets more negative treatment than any other city in the U.K. for the aforementioned reasons.
I’m from Finland and people in Helsinki are loathed on some degree. The reasoning is mostly because they’re arrogant, they don’t have common sense and know nothing about life outside of Helsinki.
And people in Helsinki loath country side because they think people living there are uncultured rednecks.
I’ve lived in Helsinki and now in a small town, both sides kinda have a point, but which obviously don’t apply to a lot of people.
I think this is the same in most countries. I don’t hate our capital, Amsterdam. I do think it is a whole different world and doesn’t represent The Netherlands at all. Like all capitals the inhabitants tend to be a bit arrogant. Personally I think it’s an ugly and boring city.
In general, I do not perceive a great hatred towards Rome, it may be that Italy is accustomed to a traditional polycentrism, whereby, several centres are regional poles of attraction, so that, in general, they can become the object of dislikes or sympathies. For example, I live in the North, in a medium-sized city, and some see Milan as a lively, avant-garde and open city and feel a certain admiration, others, see it as a neurotic city and despise certain attitudes associated with the Milanese and conversely extol a less ‘urban’ lifestyle. Perhaps those who live in the centre have a similar opinion of Rome, but speeches openly against it I have usually only heard from regionalists who see it as a symbol of corruption and scandals associated with politics.
Yes we have that all over Sweden as well. But the fact is that people from Stockholm are far from arrogant. The people that are arrogant on the other hand are the people from some small town that want to be a city kid and moves to the central parts of the capital, because you cant live 5 min from the absolute centre if you have grown up in the middle of a forest with 45 minutes in car to the closest neighbour. Then when they comes home to their 200 population “village”, 2 times per year, in the middle of nowhere and then they act like a big shot and looks down on all the people that lives there. So the core problem is not the people from the capital but all the farmer kids that what to be city kids.
I don’t hold Brussels in high regard. It’s not so much the people that live there as it is the aesthetic and general “feel” of the city. The feeling I have when in Brussels, I can only describe as ‘uneasiness’.
The city feels very dirty and unkempt in places, the infrastructure is aging and it shows, buildings are dirty and covered in graffiti tags, every other car seems to have a dent in it, … the list goes on. You can open Google Streetview on pretty much any random street that is not within “the small ring” to see what I mean. Within the small ring and closer to the touristic centers it’s slightly better, but no by much.
I have yet to visit a country where it isn’t similar.
I think it’s easily explained, at least for Austria.
It’s the only city that deserves being called a city, so the culture is quite different compared to anywhere else. People are perceived less friendly, more distant, more snobby. That’s just how cities are, if you come from a rural environment like I did when I moved here. Easy to believe everyone is an asshole, if you’re not used to it.
It’s also quite far in the east, so for anyone in the west it’s this weird far away place that for some reason has power over them.
I am from Germany. Nobody likes Berlin. Berlin is the only capital in the world that has a negative impact on the gross domestic product. Nobody outside Berlin likes Berlin.
Please take Berlin away from us.
It is very common. People from other regions perceive Madrilenians as snobs, “chulos”, etc.
Also there is the “Barcelona-Madrid kinda war” and a lot of peripherical nationalists just hate Madrid for what it represents (being the capital of the country they want to seccede from).
But a lot of people also say that Madrid is one of the most welcoming cities they have been to, so of course different people different opinions.
People have a nationwide hatred for the city where I live (Berlin), but Berlin is an anomaly in lots of things. People aren’t considered to be arrogant, posh, condescending or whatever. They have a completely different kind of reputation. For instance, Berlin and its citizens are viewed as being pure. People are known to be rude, but mostly because they are “rough” and just being “honest” that way. They are also known to be open-minded and liberal and rather carefree and chill (which is a cliché, of course). The capital of Germany is known for things not going or functioning well (whether it’s about bureaucracy, getting appointments, the tram…) and many people having a comparatively low quality of life, rather. Totally the opposite from other capitals in the world (such as Moscow, for instance, I get that might be the biggest polar opposite).
I think it is due to Germany’s unique history of being a devided country for decades (and its capital being split). West Germany had another capital back in the days. So such a massive centralization and collectivization of wealth couldn’t even occur the same way it did in London or Paris.
Yep, Amsterdam fits the bill here. Most Dutchies will tell you it’s Adult Disneyland, or it’s not at all Dutch, nobody speaks Dutch, the people are arrogant.
Now stop, did that all seem interchangeable (minus the Disneyland bit) with your own country’s capital and/or largest city 🤔
I’m a bit confused as other Germans here said nobody liked Berlin… In my opinion, almost every young person from other cities heads for Berlin after their school, it’s a city with international flair, lots of culture, arts, history… I enjoy every time I’m there and don’t think I know many people who would say they hated Berlin
I don’t think Dublin is hated, but there is rivalry.
Unlike how u/zgido_syldg described Italy as having lots of different centres, Ireland is dominated by Dublin especially in economic, population and political terms.
Dublin used to be regarded as a somewhat foreign city historically as it was originally settled by the Danes in the Viking age, who were more oriented to the Viking trade networks across the North Sea to Scotland, England, and Scandanavia. Irish kingdoms used to raid and sack Dublin, but it was 200 years before they captured and conquered it from the Danes.
During British rule, Dublin was seen as a British city as it had been the centre of the Pale, where British culture was strongest while Irish culture was strongest beyond the Pale. Later, Dublin was the centre of British rule with a strong British cultural influence, and some said that Liverpool was more culturally Irish than Dublin due to high emigration of Irish people to Liverpool.
Dublin also dominated Gaelic Football for a long time until recently so there is probably some rivalry/ resentment due to that.
I heard about “Kyiv has bad properties to live there because XYZ”, but never heard about Kyivans are bad. It’s entirely possible that I don’t talk to people much or just forgot, but the fact it’s not easy to remember is also some sort of indicator.
Yes
Well hate is a stong word, and the relationship with Stockholm is similar to that of Norway, we like to make jokes about them and portray the people from there in less than favourable ways
And more seriously we also think that the capitalites are quite out of touch, especially all the politicians, rich folks and influencers with seagull level IQ, as well as the average stockholmer who also acts snobby and knows and cares about nothing outside the congestion zone.
We like the city, mostly, you quite often see people on sweddit talk about the fact that our capital is quite a beautiful city, but what we dont like is the people
I wouldn’t say I hate London at all. In fact it’s somewhere I always look forward to visiting and I enjoy my time there. However, it’s not a place I could live. I’m definitely more of a city person than a rural person, but I think I’d find London a suffocating place to live.
There is a perception of London and Londoners being in a bit of a bubble, sort of if it’s not in London it doesn’t matter or it’s not important. The North is dismissed like it doesn’t matter ‘ap norf’.
Of course, it’s a bit of a generalisation as there are plenty of Londoners who do care about, love and appreciate places outside of London. Both my maternal grandparents were Londoners. My Mam was born in London. She came to Newcastle in 1974 aged 21 and has been here ever since. She reckons she was made to feel more welcome and more at home here than down south.
There’s a bit of a justified resentment from many regions towards London that it gets investment and funding that other regions don’t, and whilst you could look at London’s size and population, it still gets more per head. It gets massive multiple transport investments, and yet there are regions with old and outdated transport infrastructure desperately in need of modernisation and expansion which would benefit regional economies but it hasn’t and doesn’t happen.
Some people make comments like Edinburgh is basically England and online I’ve seen friendly jokes about which is better out of Glasgow or Edinburgh. Hate towards Edinburgh isn’t really a thing in my experience.
London is a whole different issue. They often have a reputation of being rude and feeling self important etc
“hatred” is a hard word, i would say a definitely dislike, yes. Specially from people from the second biggest city. Also fuelled by football rivalry.
The most common arguments to justify the dislike are that the national organization of services and political decisions are too centralized (Lisbon is in the center region of the country) and because of that the balance of funds is tilted to Lisbon.
I guess this normal in many European countries